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Congressional Documents

About House & Senate Documents

Congressional Documents include House Documents, Senate Documents, and Senate Treaty Documents, which provide the text of a submitted treaty. Like Committee Prints, House and Senate Documents may relate to a particular bill, but more often consist of studies and reports related to general research and activities of a committee. They may include Executive branch reports and papers, draft reports and bills, directories, statistical materials, investigative reports, historical reports, situational studies, confidential staff reports, hearings, compilations of laws, and legislative analyses.

Finding House & Senate Documents

Congressional Documents govinfo (GPO)
Coverage begins with the 94th Congress (1975-1976). Can Browse by Congress and House or Senate. To search Congressional Documents, click the orange "Search" button, select "Advanced", then under "Refine by Collection" select "Congressional Documents". Search results can be further refined by using the side panel on the search results screen. For additional information and tips, see the About Congressional Documents page.

U.S. Congressional Serial Set
Available on HeinOnline. Includes House and Senate Reports. Index coverage from inception to date; full text coverage beginning with 1978. Full text of older materials may also be available.
Once in HeinOnline, select U.S. Congressional Serial Set > Congressional Serial Set: 15th-114th Congress (1817-2017). For recent Reports, select U.S. Congressional Serial Set > Congressional Documents: 115th-118th Congress (2018-2023).
HeinOnline's U.S. Federal History Library may include links to House & Senate Documents in its compiled legislative histories. See the Federal Legislative History guide for more information.

House & Senate Documents
Available on ProQuest Congressional. Coverage begins with 1817. Full text may not be available for all documents.

  • To search by Sudoc or Accession Number (CIS number), select Search By Number then click the tab for "All citation searches." Enter the number in the appropriate field and click Search.
  • To search by H.doc. or S.doc. number, select Search By Number, then click the tab for "All citation searches." Under "Publication Number," select the Type and Congress, then enter the number and click Search.
  • To search by title, select Advanced Search, then limit to only "House & Senate Document/Reports" using the check boxes on the left side. Enter your search terms and select "Title" from the drop-down menu next to the search box. Can also limit by date.
  • See the Using ProQuest Congressional page of this guide for more information.

House and Senate Docs
Available on the library's Lexis computers. Coverage begins with the 104th Congress (1995-1996).

House Documents
Available on the library's Bloomberg Law computers. Coverage begins with 1995.

Senate Documents
Available on the library's Bloomberg Law computers. Coverage begins with 1995.